BOULDER — You could point to a laundry list of reasons why Colorado suffered its worst football season in history last year. Defenseless defense. Offensive offense. Quarterbacks entering games via a revolving door.

Look behind the 1-11 record, however, and you will see numbers nearly as revealing as in the Buffs' box scores last fall. Colorado lost a combined 108 games to injuries, fourth-most in its history.

While coach Mike MacIntyre arrived in December to end the string of seven consecutive losing seasons, a key figure is a clean-shaven, 34-year-old New Yorker whose office is deep in the recesses of the Dal Ward Center.

Dave Forman, CU's new strength and conditioning coach, came with MacIntyre from San Jose State, but not as a magic healer. He's a preventer. His methods in the weight room and on the practice fields helped transform San Jose State from arguably the worst football program in the West to its best record in 40 years.

In 2010, the year before Forman arrived, the Spartans missed 80 games because of injuries and went 1-11. In 2011, they missed 41 and went 5-7. Last year they missed only 28, won the Military Bowl and finished 11-2.

How he did it can be ascertained with one walk into the Dal Ward Center's weight room. The obligatory board listing the school lifting records and omnipresent at every school?

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"I won't put one up," Forman said. "You start chasing a number, for what? I've been places where guys squat 700 pounds. Who cares, if you can't play football?"

Forman believes in technique over records. Since arriving last winter, he has altered the Buffaloes' lifting methods. Moving the thumb on a barbell may not seem like much, but Forman believes it could mean the difference between a sore knee and a torn knee come fall.

In his introductory meeting with the Buffs, Forman told them to forget about that max bench press they put on their Facebook page. Then he asked for a little trust.

"You can squat with your knees caving in and not see the little micro tears you're creating at the MCL," Forman said. "Your knee's sore, but you're not going to think: 'Oh, you know what? I slightly tore my MCL squatting.'

"But you can certainly do damage to it. And when that hit comes to the outside of the knee — and it's going to come, it's a violent sport — because that MCL is already loose, that helmet goes right through the knee and takes out the MCL and ACL."

Head trauma is grabbing headlines, but injuries below the neck are just as plentiful. Still, injury prevention is what every strength and conditioning coach says in interviews.

"They put up a YouTube video of them training and you're going: 'Oh, my gosh! What are you talking about?' " Forman said. "They're having their testing session filmed, and their technique is scary. Nobody's going to say injury prevention is not a goal, but will you walk the walk?"

A former linebacker at famed St. Francis Prep in Queens, Forman walked on at James Madison and spent as much time with the strength coaches as football coaches. He soaked up enough knowledge to work with the other fall athletes in the spring.

He then moved up the ladder: Detroit Tigers (intern), Southern California (volunteer), Notre Dame (intern), Sacramento State (assistant), Northern Arizona (assistant) and then to Stanford, where his work under Shannon Turley moved then-head coach Jim Harbaugh to recommend Forman to MacIntyre.

"Our team," MacIntyre said, "drastically changed within 18 months."

Forman has shown some change on this team. Some defensive linemen were ordered to lose a combined 100 pounds by the start of preseason camp in August. They are halfway there.

It wasn't an easy transition for everybody. To linemen, weightlifting is as sacred as winning. Changing lifelong habits can be jarring.

"It's more frustrating than difficult, especially for a guy like me who's going into my senior year," said CU center Gus Handler. "Spring is when you make the most gains. You're in the weight room pounding, and it's just kind of frustrating to start back from scratch."

Others have already noticed an improvement.

"It's been good for us," said defensive end Chidera Uzo-Diribe, one of the defensive linemen who did not have to lose weight. "I've seen the changes on the practice field and spring ball. It's better suited for us."

What changes?

"We're all healthy," he said. "Usually you see in the spring guys get hurt; knee injuries, probably from heavy squatting. This spring, guys have said they've never felt better."

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